MISSION — Wildhorse Resort & Casino have announced that the annual Wildhorse Pow Wow on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation will be canceled for the second year in a row due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release from a casino spokesperson.

The press release said there were multiple reasons why the three-day event, which draws between 5,000 to 7,000 people to the area each year, was canceled, after originally being scheduled for July 2-4.

The concerns included “occupancy restrictions, cleaning and maintenance of outdoor facilities, spacing of vendors and spectators, current rates of COVID diagnoses in Umatilla County and on the reservation, and most importantly, with contestants traveling from across the US and Canada, risk of viral spread to the local community.”

“It takes a lot of people to run this three-day event and right now we have to do our part to keep the community safe and that means holding off until 2022,” said Wildhorse Events Manager Juliana Luke.

Although Wildhorse could theoretically hold a safe pow wow, it would require “a lot of effort” and there are no guarantees it would be perfectly safe, Luke added.

The press release also said that the Pow Wow Comedy, an event that features a Native American comedian each year, will be canceled as well.

The announcement comes a day after tribal health officials announced that 14 people on the reservation had tested positive for COVID-19 over the past two weeks, with 12 of those cases among children. 

The newly reported cases came after six straight weeks where not a single case was reported on the reservation. Officials say the outbreak stemmed from school classrooms and buses.

There are currently 17 active COVID-19 cases on the reservation, making it one of the sharpest upticks since December 2020, officials say. 

The uptick prompted officials last week to cancel several events, including a fun run, a painting class, a community school prom at Nixyaawii and the Nixyaawii Celebration Committee’s Annual Root Feast Pow Wow, according to the CTUIR website.

In response to the recent case spike, officials immediately scheduled a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center for tribal members and patients eligible for care at the health center between the ages of 12 and 18 on Saturday, May 15.

Native American pow wows have been essential traditions for tribes across North America for thousands of years. They are times where tribes “gather to celebrate cultural tradition, spirituality and competition” often with music and dancing, the press release said.

The Wildhorse Pow Wow celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019, when the event was last held. Each year, the event brings together dancers and drummers from across the nation to compete for prizes upwards of $90,000.

“My favorite thing about the Wildhorse Pow Wow is how it brings together families and friends from across the west,” Luke said. “Every year we look out for one another and this year we will do it from afar.”